If I did it again, I'd definitely invest a little more money in a lower mileage miata. Takes a lot of the pain out of rebuilding one. Clean car, just not sure how much I like that darker blue. I've yet to see that color in person.

The NC Miata dark silver/grey looks so good in person. A guy in my neighborhood who owns it always stops by to chat Miatas and I love his. Plus seeing the retractable hardtop in action makes you drool a little. Especially considering the pain in the *** it is to remove the NA/NB hardtop with rennenmetal brackets(ok maybe just the side brackets make it a pain).

So the correct control arm arrived yesterday and I set about putting it all back together. With my new lower bolt everything slipped together smoothly. The lower control arm bolted into the subframe with absolutely no issues, the axle slipped right into the hub, and the upper control arm slipped right into the subframe with no issues.

Then this happened:

WTF? Then I figured well, I'll just adjust the cam bolts on the lower control arm to straighten it out. I did, and I got it to slip in together, but the bolt holes didn't line up. I used my prybar to make the bushing eat the difference and bolt it together.

But I began to worry.

Got everything together, and the following settings on the lower control arm cam bolts...

Still results in the following level of crookedness:

As compared to the straight side:

Kinda hard to see, I know, but the **** is still crooked.

The only solution I have is to replace the hub/spindle assembly. Midtenn is working on it for me.

THAT BEING SAID....

I wasn't going to do all that work without a little drive

So I put the spare tire on the right front after fiddling with the alignment settings to get the front tires more or less pointed in the same direction.

It was spitting coolant while idling around for some reason. No idea why, as the radiator wasn't touched. The coolant was coming out of the overflow tube on the overflow tank. So I pulled over and let it cool. What a sad sight:

At least the other side looks better...

Anyway, after about 15 minutes of letting it sit and cool down to about 180 degree water temp, I started it up and went up the road, and hit a few boosts. Drove it for about 10 minutes and the temp didn't get too hot again, so iono what's going on with that.

I love this car.

I will be limping it to Josh's place soon to start work on the front subframe swap.

First off... I pulled the MSM out today, washed it up, burped the system again, and went for a drive. Overheating problem solved, no more coolant blowing out. Hunky dory, it appears.

Ugh...

Will take it to Josh's house tomorrow.

Now for the story.

Last night I had someone come over to see the 10AE. First question he asks me is how long I've owned it.

Me: "Oh, about, uhh... a month? Full disclosure: I bought it at an insurance auction."

Him: "Oh, I know. I know a lot more about this car than you do..."

Wut?

"...This used to be my car. I lost this car to my ex-wife when we separated."

Me: "Michelle?"

Him: "Uh, yeah... Do you know her?"

Me: "There were papers in the back... and a few other things too."

So, turns out, this guy bought it wrecked off eBay and repaired it. He is the one that commissioned the repair to the front. The front lip and parcel shelf carpet are sitting in his garage. He asked me what I would sell it for, told him I was firm at $3750 but that I'd be willing to sell it to him for $3500 given his situation. He said he couldn't pay that much.... anyway, he knew that I paid $2100 for it at auction, but he DIDN'T know about the $700 in fees and junk on top of that, so he agreed to the $3500 but needs some time to get the money together. Left me with a deposit and the car will sit til he gets the rest together, max one month. Once he finishes paying me, he will take the car.

So, very very little profit but at least it's something, and the guy gets his old car back. Plus I was very nearly at the point of just keeping it, so now that temptation is gone. Thank goodness.

JC (yellowspecvnismo) has a body shop that does all his work, and the guy seems super legit. He quoted $1800 for a top notch repair including a full repaint, but I'm thinking to just have him paint the passenger side of the car and make the parting line at the trunklid and hood. I don't want to paint over good condition factory paint. Shouldn't be too tough to match. The hardtop is newer than the rest of the car and was paint matched, and if the repaint on the passenger side looks anywhere near that good I'll be thrilled.

So, hopefully it'll cost less than that. With the 10AE sale I've got plenty to get it done.

Getting seriously excited. Better see most of you homos at Miatas at MRLS.

JC (yellowspecvnismo) has a body shop that does all his work, and the guy seems super legit. He quoted $1800 for a top notch repair including a full repaint, but I'm thinking to just have him paint the passenger side of the car and make the parting line at the trunklid and hood. I don't want to paint over good condition factory paint. Shouldn't be too tough to match. The hardtop is newer than the rest of the car and was paint matched, and if the repaint on the passenger side looks anywhere near that good I'll be thrilled.

So, hopefully it'll cost less than that. With the 10AE sale I've got plenty to get it done.

Getting seriously excited. Better see most of you homos at Miatas at MRLS.

I'm so excited for you too

And I'm still planning to come out there and hang out with you guythsssss